Semantic-Org/Semantic-UI · error

Saving remote data requires session storage

Error message

Saving remote data requires session storage

What it means

read.remoteData()/save.remoteData() use sessionStorage to cache remote results across refreshes (enabled by the default saveRemoteData:true). If window.Storage is undefined, both log error.noStorage; save is skipped and read returns false, so remote data will not be restored on page refresh.

Source

Thrown at src/definitions/modules/dropdown.js:3799

  name           : 'Dropdown',
  namespace      : 'dropdown',

  message: {
    addResult     : 'Add <b>{term}</b>',
    count         : '{count} selected',
    maxSelections : 'Max {maxCount} selections',
    noResults     : 'No results found.',
    serverError   : 'There was an error contacting the server'
  },

  error : {
    action          : 'You called a dropdown action that was not defined',
    alreadySetup    : 'Once a select has been initialized behaviors must be called on the created ui dropdown',
    labels          : 'Allowing user additions currently requires the use of labels.',
    missingMultiple : '<select> requires multiple property to be set to correctly preserve multiple values',
    method          : 'The method you called is not defined.',
    noAPI           : 'The API module is required to load resources remotely',
    noStorage       : 'Saving remote data requires session storage',
    noTransition    : 'This module requires ui transitions <https://github.com/Semantic-Org/UI-Transition>'
  },

  regExp : {
    escape   : /[-[\]{}()*+?.,\\^$|#\s]/g,
    quote    : /"/g
  },

  metadata : {
    defaultText     : 'defaultText',
    defaultValue    : 'defaultValue',
    placeholderText : 'placeholder',
    text            : 'text',
    value           : 'value'
  },

  // property names for remote query
  fields: {

View on GitHub (pinned to 597843ab84)

Solutions

1. Set saveRemoteData:false to disable caching and avoid the error entirely
2. Ensure sessionStorage is available (not in a restricted iframe / storage not blocked)

Example fix

// before
$('.ui.dropdown').dropdown({ apiSettings: { url: '/search?q={query}' } }); // saveRemoteData defaults to true
// after
$('.ui.dropdown').dropdown({ apiSettings: { url: '/search?q={query}' }, saveRemoteData: false });

function canUseSessionStorage() {
  try {
    return typeof window !== 'undefined' && window.Storage !== undefined
        && window.sessionStorage !== null;
  } catch (e) { return false; }
}
var ddOpts = { apiSettings: { url: '/search?q={query}' } };
ddOpts.saveRemoteData = canUseSessionStorage(); // disable cache where unsupported
$('.ui.dropdown').dropdown(ddOpts);

function supportsSessionStorage() {
  try { return !!window.sessionStorage; } catch (e) { return false; }
}

When it happens

Trigger: saveRemoteData:true (the default) with remote apiSettings, running where sessionStorage is unavailable: some private-browsing modes, sandboxed iframes with storage disabled, SSR/non-window contexts, or storage blocked by browser settings.

Common situations: Older Safari private mode; cookies/storage blocked by the user; an embedded widget iframe without allow-same-origin storage.

Related errors

• There was an error contacting the server
• The API module is required to load resources remotely
• Caching responses locally requires session storage
• You called a dropdown action that was not defined
• Once a select has been initialized behaviors must be called

AI-assisted analysis of Semantic-Org/Semantic-UI@597843ab84 (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/7b9d742719fd6cf3. Report an issue: GitHub.